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Urban Growth and Deforestation by Remote Sensing in the Humid Tropical Forest of Congo Bassin: Case of Impfondo in Republic of Congo

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Urban Growth and Deforestation by Remote Sensing in the Humid Tropical Forest of Congo Bassin: Case of Impfondo in Republic of Congo American Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development Vol. 3, No. 3, 2018, pp. 46-54 http://www.aiscience.org/journal/ajesd Urban Growth and Deforestation by Remote Sensing in the Humid Tropical Forest of Congo Bassin: Case of Impfondo in Republic of Congo Stoffenne Binsangou 1, Suspense Averti Ifo 1, *, Lypsia Ibocko 1, Lisa Louvouandou 1, Mesmin Tchindjang 3, Félix Koubouana 2 1Laboratory of Geomatic and Applied Tropical Ecology, Higher Normal School, University of Marien N’GOUABI, Brazzaville, Congo 2Laboratory of Geomatic and Applied Tropical Ecology, Higher National School of Forestry and Agriculture, University of Marien N’GOUABI, Brazzaville, Congo 3Department of Geography, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon Abstract Urban growth is identified as one of the main deforestation drivers and land degradation in tropical region. Very few data exist to quantify the impact of this drivers. The aims of this study were: (i) estimating the activity data of the growth of the city’s Impfondo in the period between 1986 to 2016; (ii) determining the indirect drivers of that urban growth. This study is carried out in Impfondo. The remote sensing and GIS techniques were used to assess urban growth and its impact on deforestation and degradation of the forest around and in Impfondo the period between 1986 and 2016. Landsat images were used; specially 2 images Thematic Mapper (TM) of 1986 and Operational Land Imager (OLI) of 2016. ERDAS 2014 software was for images classification, classification and calculation of forest lost area during this growth. Additional field survey was made to collect truth GPS ground points. As result, the urban tram area growth from 267.86 ha in the year 1986 to 859.68 ha in the year 2016. This study showed the impact of urban growth on deforestation on the one hand and on the other hand stress considering this factor in mitigating the effects of climate change. Keywords Forests, Deforestation, Remote Sensing, Urban Growth, Impfondo, Republic of the Congo Received: August 19, 2018 / Accepted: September 11, 2018 / Published online: October 9, 2018 @ 2018 The Authors. Published by American Institute of Science. This Open Access article is under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ sustainability of tropical forest ecosystem. Although some 1. Introduction authors [5, 4] consider that the Congo basin forest are relatively well preserved, the deforestation rate (0.17%) is far The forests of the Congo Basin extend over nearly 200 below in comparison with one observed in the others tropical million hectares and 90% of the forest consists of dense regions e.g Amazonian forest. The rate of deforestation in tropical forests. More than 99% of the forest surface consists Amazonian forest reached 0.4% per year annum [6]. in the of primary or naturally regenerated forests, as opposed to past decades. Deforestation and degradation have significant plantations. These tropical forests are characterized by impacts on plant biodiversity [1] and contribute significant biodiversity [1, 2, 3]. However, these forests approximately to almost 18% of global greenhouse gas suffer from both quantitative and qualitative loss of emissions [7-10]. Several authors have reviewed the causes biodiversity resulting. However, these forests suffer a loss of deforestation and degradation in the tropics [11, 12], and both quantitatively and qualitatively because of deforestation shown that agriculture, logging activities were identified as and forest degradation [4]. with significant impacts on the * Corresponding author E-mail address: 47 Stoffenne Binsangou et al. : Urban Growth and Deforestation by Remote Sensing in the Humid Tropical Forest of Congo Bassin Between 1986–2016: Case of Impfondo, Republic of Congo the main drivers. from neighbouring countries, such is the case of the urban In the Republic of Congo (RoC), the annual deforestation community of Impfondo. rate growth from 0.02% in 1990-2000 to 0.03% in 2000-2010 The Impfondo city was created on December 12 th , 1920 and [13]. This deforestation is unevenly distributed throughout is the head quarter of the Likouala region. Historical data the national territory of RoC. It has been noted in some collected in the field revealed that this urban community was departments of RoC that the rates of deforestation were much originally a camp of fisherman settled on the Ubangi River. higher than the national average rate. For 2000-2010: The In addition, this camp was plunged into a forested area. This department of Kouilou had a deforestation rate of 1.78%, urban community has widened with time attracting the while in the other departments (Lekoumou, Niari and Pool) populations of the villages scattered around. Also, the arrival the rate of deforestation was 1.06%, 1.35%, 0.91% of the first catholic missionaries help in promoting the respectively). Several factors were identified as the source of administrative organization of this locality. forest losses in the Republic of the Congo, including: The present study aimed at quantifying the areas of forest agriculture, infrastructure development, wood energy loss because of the development of this local urban collection and urban growth, etc [24]. Urban growth also community. To date, starting from the official date of the explains the significant losses of forest due to the creation of the Impfondo city, how much was the evolution consumption of building materials and the land use for house of the urban community? What factors contributed to its building and rural activities developments. development? Urban land expansion is placing a formidable challenge in The following assumptions were made: the growth of the many countries around the globe, especially in terms of their urban community of Impfondo and its related would be the link with deforestation and land degradation in intertropical main cause of forest loss in that community; Population region where many cities were developed inner deep tropical growth, migratory population flows would justify this urban [14, 13]. According to a report submitted by the REDD + expansion and thus deforestation in the study area. The MDDEF-GAF pilot project "Monitoring National Forest objectives of this study were to assess the impact of urban cover" in the Republic of the Congo, the second major growth on the forest and to determine its immediate and drivers of Deforestation is the expansion of residential areas structural drivers. (including logging roads), causing 14% of the changes in forest cover in the Republic of the Congo in the period of 2000-2010. This study had shown the bond which existed 2. Materials and Methods between the zones of conflicts and the increase in the of the 2.1. Presentation of the Study Area population in the localities having which had received the refugees of civil war come from bordering countries. Urban The study was carried out within the tropical rainforest of the land expansion a universal phenomenon that has known and North of Congo Brazzaville in the department of Likouala is currently experiencing a acceleration in Africa and mainly (Figure 1). The zone of study covers a total surface of of the republic of Congo [15, 05]. As urban growth is 155274 ha. It lies between 1∘ 27’ 52.85’’ and 2∘ 6’55.76’’ of concerned, several factors have been identified: the northern latitude and between 17 ∘ 52’ 35.04’’ and 18 ∘ population increase, rural exodus, civil war and conflicts with 04’32.65’’ of longitude. The climate of the study area was of migratory phenomena accompanying it in some Central equatorial type. Mean rainfall is of 1760 mm y−1 , with a dry Africa countries, Poverty stricken in the rural area, the season from December to January and a long-wet season development of social and economic of cities [16, 17, 13]. from March to November (Figure 2). In the Dongou district, Observations in some countries of the Congo basin revealed the soil cover is of tertiary clay sandy formation and a that African cities are spreading and taking over natural quaternary alluvial formation to the east. spaces. In the Republic of the Congo, a recent study The soils derived from there are impoverished ferrilitic highlights the causes of urban sprawl: population growth, brown-red clay-sand soils on the Western plateau, land-use planning, accelerated municipalization and ferralitic/hydromorphic alluvial soils on alluvial terraces, and residential sprawl have participated to the transformation of waterlogged peat soils in flooded areas. This area has one of the landscape from south of Country until the North of the very low densities of human population (0.93 km2) of the territory. This study also showed how urban sprawl in a Republic of Congo. forest town, the city of Ouesso, has resulted in significant The forest of Likouala contains a high diversity of trees and forest losses [15]. Other regions of the Republic of the Congo plants [1]. In the Dongou district, the forests of the study area experienced in the years 1990 and 2000 to 2010 an important are rainforest. The principal vegetation types are partially development of urban space due to the large flow of refugees American Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development Vol. 3, No. 3, 2018, pp. 46-54 48 deciduous dense rainforests of Ulmaceae and Sterculiaceae, forest of Guibourtia demeusei (Harms) J. Léonard [1]. Tree swampy flooded forest of Uapaca heudelotii Baill. , and canopy closure of the forest varies from 93% to 100% Figure 1. Locating the study area. Figure 2. Ombrothermique diagram
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